An interesting phenomenon is being reported by some members. Police officers approaching their vehicles during routine traffic stops are asking an opening question different than the traditional, “Do you know why I stopped you?” Rather, in this day of rising popularity of dashcams and the ubiquitous presence of smartphones, the opening query is just as […]

Have we become a nation of cellphone zombies? Many experts believe that the increase in distracted driving, in particular using a cellphone to text while driving, has been a big factor in the increase of traffic fatalities since 2009. Another factor apparently is distracted walking. Pedestrian deaths account for 16 percent of all traffic fatalities. […]

Part 1 dealt with how distracted driving enforcement campaigns, fueled by federal highway money, are also dragnets for other offenses. Part 2 examines new law enforcement tools to check on texting while driving. Currently, law enforcement has great difficulty in determining if a driver was using electronic devices before a crash (and more importantly whether […]

Distracted driving of any kind can be instantly dangerous. Each April the federal and state governments conduct a public awareness campaign on the dangers of distracted driving that bombards motorists with media messages which leads to increased command-and-control enforcement. There can be many different distractions for drivers but among the most controversial is the use […]

Earlier this month, the Florida Appeals Court in a 2-1 decision found in the 2013 Palm Beach County DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide case involving Charles Worsham Jr that the Fourth Amendment affords an expectation of privacy for vehicle electronic data recorders (EDRs), aka black boxes. Similar to an airplane black box, a vehicle’s EDR […]